Is Manchester United’s Ashley Young A Cheat?

For the second time in three games Ashley Young has got a penalty, when the TV replays showed there was minimal contact at best with the opposing player.

Ashley Young – appealing for another penalty In yesterday’s game Young went down in the penalty area, as he dragged his left leg against Aston Villa’s Ciaran Clark, to ensure there was contact, and then he looked up at the referee appealing for the penalty.

We remember well at Villa Park least season on 10th April, when he dived against Newcastle following minimum contact from Joey Barton, and then the free kick taken by Young was headed home by James Collins, and that goal won Villa the match 1-0.

In the game at QPR he managed to get Shaun Derry get sent off, and it was debatable whether Derry actually touched Young at all, but the Red Devils got the penalty and QPR were reduced to 10 men.

And the FA embarrassed themselves (again), as they had an opportunity to right a wrong, because Young was a yard offside and therefore the foul and sending off should not have counted as Derry was sent off.

There was nothing much the FA could do about the penalty, but they could have rescinded the red card when QPR appealed, but they didn’t.

We need somebody from the FA to explain what their logic behind that decision was, but of course the FA are not renowned for their logic, or much else for that matter.

Even Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted that Young has been going down far too easily recently, but Alex still thought it was a penalty:

“I think he played for the penalty,” “If the player decides to put his foot in and doesn’t straighten his own feet and read the situation, then he’s fallen into that.

“He’s there for the taking. I think it was a dramatic fall, I think maybe he overdid the fall. But it was a penalty.”

And then our very own Ryan Taylor blasted the player on his Twitter account.

“Ashley Young is an absolute disgrace. He’s the biggest cheat in the league. His antics are a joke.”

Ryan quickly deleted the post but on Twitter you cannot undo it – and it’s out to the world.

And Ryan then posted this – but he probably should have left it at that:

33 comments so far

Diving should be shut down and shut down hard. 3 match bans for blatant dives. Sorted. And that goes for our own players too. I wouldn’t mind me a yellow card for overacting aswell. Looking at u Perch and Tiote. It’s pathetic. Even for our own players i absolutely hate to see it. Tiotes fall from Sessesogns “punch” was far worse than Perch’s.

everyone dives … its part of the game now … its up to the referees … tony pulis once said that the FA should start a league for the referees, and a relegation system… the lowest points tally gets you relegated to the championship and .. and the highest points tally in the champioship gets you promoted to ref in the epl

The difference is when Jonas goes to ground there’s a decent amount of contact.

Not some gentle touch on the chest. (Derry on Young). On the subject of young’s blatant dive against Villa. From what I saw on the tele, he already looks like he is going to ground before there is contact. And when the contact is made, he is actually kicks the villa lad to simulate contact.

Young is a cheat. The FA should look at videos of diving, much like bad tackles and violence. A ref can’t see everything and has to make a split second judgement call. I’ve not been a professional player, just Sunday leagues and such like. In all my years of playing, I can hold my hand on my heart and say I’ve never cheated.

The shame is that young is a very talented young player who doesn’t need to cheat, very sad really.

Anyway, back to what matters.

No pressure, perusing a champions league spot now. No matter what, the lads have been outstanding this season and were already virtually guaranteed European football next season.

I think that referee league system is a very good idea. It’s not something that the wet flannels at the FA would ever dare to introduce though, it’s far too much of a change and Fergie might get the hump.

In terms of the diving, it’s ridiculous, it really winds me up, even, as Dannyo said, by our own players. For some reason I sort of half expect it from South Americans and Spaniards, because it’s part of the game over there, if you can win a freekick, whether you deserve it or not, it’s seen as a good quality to have.

But cheating and being unsportsmanlike is very UnBritish, so it winds me up something rotten to see English players beginning to adopt these traits.

Agree with the idea of a referee league system. In any business, the better you are (generally) the higher you go. If you perform badly, you should go down. It’s a simple logical solution really. But again, I have to agree with lewspi, the FA would never introduce it. Shame really.

I think there is a fine line between exageration to ensure you get a free kick and simulation which is cheating. In my eyes (admittedly biassed) Jonas is on the exagertion side of the line whereas Young is well over on the cheating side!

The problem with this diving thing is sometimes refs get it wrong the other way too and that’s probably even more unfair. e.g. Tevez was really fouled a couple of days ago and he got a yellow. The only solution to all this is video technology. This was applied centuries ago in the USA with American football. Each team would be allowed, say, 2 challenges per half and ref would also be allowed to double check a decision once in each half. Video viewing would be a maximum of 30 seconds, that’s three minutes more per game, hardly a problem with flow of games, which is one of the main excuses for not introducing it. The other is tradition: anyone remember goalies allowed to handle the ball from a back pass? BTW, goal line technology alone is a crap idea, as it happens very rarely. Imagine how many games are played around the world and how many efforts are fifty-fifty past the line; if you’ve played football, you know it’s a tiny percentage. Video technology is needed all over the field, for questionable decisions regarding pens, offsides, red card offences, etc.

He should be given a ban. If people can be banned for racism or violence after a game, equally so people should be booked for being a cheat. That goal put Man Utd from 1 point to 3 points. How are you supposed to defend against a player who sticks his leg out looking for a penalty, just let him run in and score? He should be at least given a three match ban. It’s bad for the league when players like Suarez are getting defended by their manager even though they’re clearly racist, everybody has just turned a blind eye for Terry, and players like Ashley young can cheat.

I think Ashley Young is a cheat, as is Luis Suarez, but u also think it has nothing to do with us, unless it directly affects us.

In my opinion most fans would say that if a player dived against them it would he cheating but if a player dicided to dive for them they would (in the majority of circumstances) say that player has a right to go down.

Young is a cheat, plain and simple, and a disgrace to the game of football and to one of The Great English Clubs in Manchester United.

It’s no good saying, “well, it’s part of the game now”, because that’s like saying, “oh, it’s ok to urinate on the streets and get into fights and vandalize bus stops, because _everyone_ is doing it.” A cheat is a cheat is a cheat, irrespective if he’s the only loathsome creature out there, or one of many.

Meantime, what I don’t understand is this way commentators and journalists say, “well, there was contact.” A penalty is given for a foul in the penalty area. So to be awarded a penalty Young would have had to have been fouled. There was contact, but so what? When did contact alone constitute a foul? Young was touched, and then dived. End of story.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise us, though, this season. Man U have now had an incredible 11 (ELEVEN!) penalties this season, and have a penalty for-against difference of +8. The next team has +5 and after that, no team has more than +3. The alltime record for English professional football was Manchester City in 71-72, who had 15. But they had a 42 match season to reach that dubious honour, and Francis Lee (such a notorious diver that he was given the “Chinese” nickname Lee One Pen) in an era when referees weren’t anywhere near as savvy when it came to diving.

The things is it’s quite a big call to call someone a cheat. If you are wrong you have slandered someone and questioned their integrity. The sad thing is you have a culture of cheating in football. Every time the ball goes out there is two or three players calling for it saying it went off the other guy, a few players will always surround the ref and go after them. Players diving to get others sent off. It is completely devoid of sportsmanship. As a ref it must be hard to control a game where there is no shame in claiming the ball even if you know it is not yours. These players who dive or call for the ball or abuse the ref etc hardly ever get called out and get to walk away free and easy after the guy.

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